Italy-based Inglass SpA, which specializes in hot runner systems and automotive lighting molds, has acquired French company ERMO, which produces multicavity molds.

The deal is expected to be finalized in June, but Inglass told European Plastics News they were not releasing the cost of the acquisition.

Under the transaction terms and subject to certain conditions, Inglass says, it will acquire 100 percent of the stock of AURCA, the holding company which owns 83.25 percent of publicly-traded ERMO, together with a further portion of shares of ERMO equal to 11.7 percent.

Once Inglass has a majority of the shares, it said it will launch an offer to acquire the remaining shares and take the company private.

Inglass states that the transaction will lead it to a further diversification process development of its activities from the automotive sector.

The two companies will continue focusing on their own key activities. Inglass says that ERMO will benefit from its global presence, as it has local branches in 50 countries and two production plants in Italy and in China, with a third opening soon in the U.S.

Inglass’ hot runner business, HRS Flow, announced last month that it is opening a new facility in Grand Rapids, Mich.

ERMO chairman Jean Yves Pichereau said: “Inglass’s global presence and its strong innovative spirit will enable us to offer technologically advanced products related to the high expertise of these two companies in the whole world, especially in those countries where the demand is increasing”.

Maurizio Bazzo, president of Inglass, said: “Over the following years, this decision will allow the company to choose and focus its resources in a niche of high precision molds, retracing the path taken by Inglass for rotating multicolor and multi-components molds for the automotive lighting field. ERMO, in particular, was chosen due to its excellent knowledge and the high reliability of its products, as well as the innovative spirit that we have in common”.

Inglass and ERMO will jointly represent a group of 800 employees and expect 2014 sales of 110 million euros ($152.3 million).